Living Legends
by Spirit Seer
Summary: What do you do when the legend is real, standing before you and breathing down your neck? And what do you when the dying myth is very much a living reality? T for safety.
1. Living Legends

**A/N:** Hello, all! :D Welcome to my first real Golden Sun two-shot! *feels proud*

I have a sister poem that goes with this, titled, "Living Legends- Poem" within my poem collection, "Golden Sun Poems". If you're interested, please check it out and tell me your opinions on the differences between the two, or whatever it is that you feel like sharing.

This is my first Golden Sun two-shot (as it is now officially such) that is not a crack-fic or a multi-chap (though, technically, with more than one chapter, it might be considered that…). You may read either this or the poem first, if you were wondering; it doesn't matter which. However, whichever you read first will spoil the ending for the other, so if you prefer reading prose, you may want to read this first.

Anyway, please enjoy! (After disclaimer… sigh.)

**Disclaimer:** I disclaim Golden Sun! I do not own the awesome game! This fanfiction is being written for entertainment purposes only and no money is being made off of it.

**EDIT (6/13/13):** Revisions were made to the story. It is inherently the same. (Although this means that I have reposted this twice now. Yay for you!) I have simply edited the text for grammar and flow. Many thanks to all my reviewers, especially ThorHammer17 and Rozzlynn. I believe I have fixed this completely this time.

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**Living Legends**

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The firelight flickers and dances among the members of the caravan that huddle around it, seeking its warmth and security. These parts of the world are filled with bandits and robbers, the bane of merchants. They hope the light of Mars will drive away those that seek to do them harm, although they can defend themselves if need be. They may not be as powerful as the military-trained adepts, but they can utilize the more basic techniques of their element, or element mixture, as sometimes the case is. The once scarce mental power is now so commonplace that no one remembers the rise of the Golden Sun and the subsequent return of psynergy, except through the tales of their forefathers.

One of the members of the caravan is about to tell such a tale. Several such stories have been passed of ghastly monsters and the relighting of the lighthouses, and it is now the leader of the caravan's turn to add his own in the chilling darkness.

He edges closer to the fire, the light pushing away the shadows from the rough contours lining his face while blackening the remainder of his body and those of his companions. He raises his mug to his lips, takes a deep swig for nerve, and lowers it. He carefully lets all traces of mirth drip away, and his countenance reveals nothing but the solemnity of the dying legend he is about to resurrect.

"The lighthouses were extinguished several thousand years ago," he begins. "We all know about how several brave youths relight them to rekindle the Golden Sun. These are the stories we were spoon-fed when we were children, and they were our guides as we learned to walk. But," he pauses, allowing the full affect of suspense to fall, before saying, "there is one tale that is refrained from being spoken of. One myth, that to speak of it, to breathe the cursed name, is as powerful as a curse upon your ancestors and progeny.

"This is the legend of the demon. This is the legend of the one whom the gods themselves feared, whom the Sun itself once bowed to, before the courageous youth that lit and guarded the Golden Sun slew him and stained the snow of Mt. Aleph with his accursed blood."

He glances around at the captivated faces, which are inching ever so slightly closer, not wanting to miss a word. He takes another drag of beer, and continues:

"The demon was the bastard child of Nereid and Boreas. He was abandoned in the woods of Imil after he was born and left to die, lest their adultery be revealed for the eyes of all the Elysian Realm (1) to see. Unknown to the villagers of the then humble town, he had been cursed by Poseidon, Nereid's father, to reap destruction upon all he met—even the ground he walked upon withered beneath his steps. Plagues and famine swept the village, each season harsher than the next; the healers that had adopted him did not know he was the one that caused it. Imil's inhabitants began falling one by one, and the healers of the village were no exception. Eventually, all that remained of the renowned healers were the sister of the accursed and their grandparents, but even they were fading away. Through her grief and the grieving of the village, they learned the truth, and they banished the cursed incarnate of ice, bading him never to return.

"Abandoned once again by the ones who were his family, he cursed the village and its inhabitants. He vowed to gain the power to rekindle the lighthouses, that he may become the ruler of the world and force them to face him. He vowed to become a god himself—

"He swore that he would capture the Golden Sun."

Murmured gasps ring out among the listeners. The speaker smirks, enjoying the effect of his tale.

The mood is disturbed when a hooded-and-cloaked stranger enters the outer fringes of the camp. Knowing that a lone traveler is an easy target for robbers, the leader beckons for the stranger to join them. The leaders knows that allowing strangers into his camp is dangerous, but he since he does not feel ill intent from the man, he invites him in. The merchant leader has strains of Jupiter within himself; he trusts the heightened awareness that the wind gives him.

One of his traveling companions offers the new man a mug of beer, but the visitor declines. He situates himself on the cold ground, draws his cloak around himself, and looks to the head merchant. When another merchant asks him for his name, the stranger merely shakes his head and gestures to their leader, bidding him silently to continue his story that he had interrupted. The head merchant decides to allow the stranger his privacy until his story is completed.

"As I was saying," the leader of the caravan continues, his voice once again dropping into a mysterious and captivating tone. "A scourge of the village, the man who would become a demon set out for the power to steal the Golden Sun, the heart of Weyard herself. He descended into the dark depths of the underworld, the very pit and castle of Hades, and coerced the King of the Dead to grant him demon-hood and the powers of hell and darkness.

"Transfigured thus bodily into the demon he was, he left Hades, challenged the gods by stealing the lights of the Elements—the Elemental Stars. He dared to trespass on holy ground, and he further tricked the legendary youths into lighting each of the lighthouses for him. Finally, after the ignition of the final beacon, the Mars Lighthouse, the evil incarnate of Mercury raced to the peak of Mt. Aleph, where the Golden Sun would ignite and shine her light upon Weyard once more.

"The one who bathed themself in the igniting light could coerce her might, the might of the Sun, to their will."

Gasps ring out again. The speaker does not pause, pressing onward with increasing force:

"He climbed and he climbed. In the end, he reached the top, just as the lights of all the beacons gathered at the highest pinnacle. He stretched his arms out towards the heavens, calling the might of the Golden Sun to himself—but he was too late."

The speaker falls silent at his concluding words, and the stranger, surprisingly, queries, "Why was he too late?" His voice is smooth and even, and the leader is taken aback for a moment.

The leader leans in, however, slipping back into the tale as he answered, "The Guardian of Weyard stole a portion of the Golden Sun to prevent this very act from occurring. Upon learning of this, the demon howled in anguish at having his immortality stolen. He rampaged, destroying half of Weyard, including Imil, the place of his banishment. He would have killed his adopted sister, too, if not for the youth, whom the Guardian had given a portion of the Golden Sun for this moment. Taking up his mighty Gaia Blade, the youth rammed it through the demon's heart.

"But the demon had become so evil, his heart so filled with the atrocities of darkness, Death itself could not bear to touch him. It, too, abandoned him, left him to an immortality of a half-living body, an undead corpse, rotted but unable to relinquish the tarnished soul it contained. The gods cursed and spited him from their villas in the Elysian Realm, while secretly fearing that he may resurrect himself to his former darkened glory and reap his revenge upon them."

As he says these words, the stranger decides abruptly to leave, despite his apparent entrancement with the story. He rises, and the final words of the legend fade behind him as he walks away.

"They say that the demon still wanders Weyard, searching for the youth who shares the final portion of his power. The demon, Alex…"

The stranger walks away, mulling the legend over in his head. He fingers at the faintly glowing sword hidden in the sheath strapped on his back, chuckling to himself, "The demon, Alex. Who would have guessed…?"

He pulls the hood from his head and allows his cerulean hair to bathe in the moonlight. After holding himself back, he gives himself over to the peals of laughter that have been building in his chest. "Demon, indeed!" he laughs.

His laughter subsides. Alex cannot believe how his history has given him a demonic nature over time, how warped the story was from the truth. While he had hoped initially that his memory would be immortalized along with his intended reign over Weyard, this outcome is not what he had intended. Instead, history calls him a demon, and he has been twice-defeated at the hands of Isaac. The memory still causes his heart to twist hatefully in his chest at the truth of the events.

The fact that the true memory of the deeds—his real history—has been twisted into something beyond recognizable is what confounds him. Should he attempt to fix the twisted fallacies back into truths…?

Alex sighs, turns around, and walks away. He cannot change the turnout of his legend. However, he wonders how they would react, if the "demon" they were sharing the legend of had revealed himself, breathing and living among them.

It is a humorous scenario for him.

Although, Alex considers, a funnier revelation would be if the generations of this era ever discover the current whereabouts of their idolized hero, the true fate of the Earth warrior they so revere, what his face truly looks like behind the golden mask they paint over his side of the story…

Compared the apparent tragedy of his history, the golden tale of his enemy is the true adulteration of fact.

That is the real irony to Alex, and he laughs as disappears into the darkness.

Perhaps it is finally time to twist his history in a direction to his liking…

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**A/N:** (1) Elysian Realm: the realm/dimension in which the gods/goddesses/summons reside. The latter is more in tune with my Golden Sun X Naruto crossover, "A Guardian's Light".

Yep, Alex survived and the Golden Sun granted him such immortality that he's listening to his own legend thousands of years later. Sufficiently wondering what happened to Isaac…? Check out the next chapter, please!

Also, that was not implied Mudshipping toward the end of the legend. He was the only one who could've saved Mia in the tale, and therefore he had to be there if she was going to be saved. Don't kill me, Valeshippers and forum buddies! *dodges shoes* The truth is revealed in the next chapter!

Please R&R and share your thoughts!


	2. Dying Myths

A/N: Hey, y'all! :D Here I am, posting so I don't feel like the entire Christmas break went by without writing, and someday I'll catch up on the forum.

Anyway… This is a sister-fic to my Living Legends one-shot. I considered posting this as either a second chapter or a one-shot, and in the end you get a grouped two-shot. I hope you enjoy!

And you get a disclaimer in a poem format. Yay!

**Disclaimer:**

_I have not stolen; there is no theft._

_I'm giving credit where credit is due:_

_Golden Sun belongs to Camelot._

_Please call off those lawyers; please don't sue._

Disclaimer and story idea/story belong to me, though. This is being written or entertainment purposes only. I am not making any money off of this.

**EDIT (6/13/13): **I have edited this chapter as well for flow and missed typos, etc, as well.

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**Dying Myths**

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A shadow sweeps across the cobbled pavement, the solitary figure it belongs to silently treading the winter-beaten path. The joyful sun has set, and the gentle moon is just beginning to rise. Her attendant stars appear beside her as Day pulls aside her golden veil to allow Night's silvery blanket cover Weyard.

There are not many houses lining this empty street, but the traveler has no destination in mind. He simply walks, as he has always done. He feels the night chill surround him in a morose embrace, but he slides from her grip, paying her no heed. He has long since become familiar with her continuing approach that his shrug of it is unconscious.

A flickering light from a home he passes catches his eye, and he pauses. Through the frosted window, he sees warm waves of light gently bouncing around a living room, and the cheery fire that births them, crackling and lightly spitting. If he stands any closer, he can envision the warmth passing through the panes.

In his glance, he sees the glass open a crack to continue the airflow, and he views the source of the children's laughter that has carried through. A mother sits in a rocking chair, her progeny clambering around her on the rug, all of them enjoying the peacefulness of the winter fire and snowy season.

Pain grips at his heart at the scene—a mixture of regret, sorrow, and mourning—but he hardens himself against it. Too many tears have fallen. He will not allow more ice to dot the walk. The sun for that has set long ago.

Yet he cannot stop himself as he steps closer to the window, feeling as though he is peering into an illusion that will disappear if he blinks.

The mother listens patiently as her children all demand their favorite story, a somehow peaceful cacophony of voices through the chill. Finally, one pierces through the net—

"Momma, I wanna hear the story of the hero Isaac and the Golden Sun! How he slew the mighty demon and saved Princess Mia!"

At this mentioning, all other hopeful stories fade and focus on this sole suggestion.

"Yes, Mommy, me, too!"

"I wanna hear of the brave knight Isaac and the lighting of the Golden Sun!"

The mother chuckles at how quickly her children changed their minds, gently waving her hand for quiet. Immediately, a hush falls. "You want to hear about Isaac of the Golden Sun?"

"Yes, Momma!"

"I wanna hear that one!"

The mother laughs, settling herself down in her chair as she prepares to speak. Tacitly, the children all settle down around her, anxiously awaiting the tale.

"It was a long time ago," she begins. The children immediately lean forward, breathing in her every word. "Weyard had long been dying, lacking the Alchemy she required to live. She began eating herself, destroying the very world we live on." Gasps ring from the children, and the mother smiles to herself before continuing.

"However, there was one way to save her—to relight the Elemental Lighthouses. This would reawaken the Golden Sun, the life force and heart of Weyard, which had been sleeping since the Elemental Stars were sealed away. When Golden Sun rose once more, Weyard could live again.

"But there was someone else who had other ideas..."

"Alex!" one of the children pipes up in the excitement of the revelation of the villain. She is hushed immediately by her siblings, a distraction to the epic tale, and the mother laughs before confirming,

"Yes, it was Alex, the demon in human form who sought immortality. He knew that once the Elemental Lighthouses were relit, the first person standing on the peak of Mt. Aleph could claim the power of the Golden Sun. He intended to be the one to claim it and take control of the entire world."

Gasps ring out among the children again, and the unknown listener at the window smiles at their reaction. However, it is a pained, worn half-smile, memories clearly flicking through his mind like the fire in the hearth, not sharing the same enthusiasm of the children surrounding their mother.

"Believing they could save the world, eight youths braved the quest to relight the lighthouses, unknowingly helping Alex to achieve what he was seeking. They had been tricked, believing that he desired Weyard's salvation alongside them. In the end, they succeeded in relighting the Lighthouses, and they believed that Weyard was saved.

"But they were the victims of betrayal. At the last moment, Alex stole the forming Golden Sun, claiming its power…"

The children are leaning as far forward as they can muster, hanging on to every word.

"But it was Alex, the demon, who was thwarted in the end. The mighty guardian of Weyard, the Wise One, sealed a portion of the Golden Sun in Isaac at the last possible moment, preventing what Alex had intended from occurring.

"Alex, outraged, vowed to destroy Isaac, the one who prevented him from attaining his goal. He searched and scoured Weyard, finally finding him in the house of Alex's adopted sister, Mia, the Princess of Imil, who had also accompanied them on their quest to save Weyard. In his fury, Alex destroyed half of Imil trying to reach the hero Isaac. In the end, however, it was the demon that fell, Isaac defeating him and protecting Princess Mia."

There is a collective sigh of relief and happiness from the children, and the mother smiles at their reactions during the story. She continues,

"Badly beaten but unable to die, the demon wandered Weyard, searching for Isaac, who was also unable to die. Isaac continued to fight against the black soul of Alex, defending Weyard and the only portion of the Golden Sun that remained for Alex to claim to achieve his dream of immortality and invincibility…."

The story ends, and there is another collective murmur amongst the children, though this time for their desire to know what happened afterward with the Mighty Isaac and Princess Mia, and if there were any further battles between Isaac and Alex, if it was possible that they were still living….

At this point, the listener sighs, forlornly watching the children that continue to clamor around their loving and patient mother. His breath is a wisp in the air as memories of the past begin to cloud his mind, painting a much different picture than the dreamscape the mother had sown. He thinks of the real story, not the myth so twisted it is barely a shadow of the long-forgotten truth.

_The quest had been a long and grueling one. After much toil, peace began to reign. The adventurers returned home, seizing the opportunity to continue the lives they had so abruptly left behind. Before that time, Isaac had been known as a quiet person, a focused person, seen as a beacon to gather around while never seeing the shadows that lie thickest at the base. Those shadows were dispelled once the quest ended, however, and he learned that his father was still alive, and he was reunited with his mother, and he had rescued his love, Jenna. His light had only grown more the day she had agreed to marry him, and then on the day that they learned that Jenna was pregnant with their first child. _

_He had never been so happy._

_But Isaac's happiness was short-lived. _

_The peace everyone had been experiencing came to an end, when it was discovered that Alex still walked the earth. They searched for him, but they could never find the elusive traitor. In the end, it was Alex who found Isaac. Isaac did not then know that he carried a portion of the Golden Sun within him, nor the lengths that Alex would go to claim it._

_Jenna had had a rough pregnancy, and after one particularly bad morning sickness close to her time of delivery, Isaac took her to Imil early to see Mia, hoping that his friend could take care of his love, and not knowing what else he could do. Then, Jenna suddenly went into labor prematurely, and it began to appear that she would die in childbirth. _

_For the first time in a long time, Isaac was scared. He stayed by Jenna's side, praying she would make it. As the destruction of Imil began and its defenses fell, Mia begged Isaac to save Imil while she took care of Jenna. Isaac was torn between Jenna and defending the city, to stay with his love or to prevent Alex from reaching the Sanctum before it was too late. Isaac cursed Alex having chosen that time to attack. He did not suspect that he held the remaining portion of the Golden Sun, which the Wise One had placed secretly within him to protect. It was the real reason why Alex was there, and the reason for which Isaac would hate himself for the outcome in the many decades to come. _

_In the end, Isaac had no choice. Alex was right outside of Mia's Sanctum, and he had to go if he wanted to defend Jenna. He said one last 'I love you' to Jenna that his love returned before passing unconscious, and then he hurried outside to face his foe._

_It was the bitterest fight Isaac had ever fought. Tired, worn down emotionally and physically beyond fatigue, the only thing that kept Isaac going was the knowledge that Jenna lay inside the Sanctum, counting on his protection as she fought to stay alive and bring their child into the world. Hours later, both fighters were near-death, but Alex was the worst off. He fled before Death could truly take him, leaving Isaac to finally return to Jenna's side._

_But what Isaac had hoped to find was not what he saw as he opened the door. A cold chill passed over him as he saw Mia, psynergy-spent and her face buried in her arms, sitting on a stool beside Jenna's bedside, crying. She was barely conscious, having tapped into as much reserves as she could, trying with all she could give to save Jenna and their child from premature death. _

_She had failed._

_Jenna, his love, his reason for living, was lying dead on the bed, her face ashen and their child—his son—borne through incision*, was discovered dead._

_That was the day Isaac felt his world shatter within him, the day his light died with his love on the birthing bed._

_After Jenna's death, Isaac never married again. Once, several years later, Mia had grown feelings for him and approached him about it, but Isaac couldn't reciprocate them. He could never love another like he had loved Jenna. Despite his wish for a companion to save him from the loneliness that came with mourning, he knew he could never have anyone but Jenna, who was gone. She was his only one._

_There would be never be another Jenna, and all his powers and skill couldn't reawaken the dead._

_Immune to the ravages of time with the immortality granted by the Golden Sun, Isaac was forced to remember his pain every waking moment of the day, cursing himself, his weaknesses, his failure, and the Wise One for giving power to him that he didn't want. All pains faded with time, but his wound never healed completely. _

_Due to the Golden Sun, Isaac was never granted the peace of the final darkness, instead forced to live an eternal day, watching his companions find love, have their children, grow old and die, and then being forced to watch his nephew and niece and their generation find love, have children, and then grow old and die. He was frozen in time, Death ignoring him as it claimed the lives and time of everyone around him. _

_Eventually, Isaac had had enough of wasting away in Vale as the cycle repeated itself. He left Vale, becoming a wandering vagabond as he slowly gave way to festering feelings of revenge. He searched and searched for Alex, but he never found him. Perhaps he had died somewhere, or perhaps he was wandering the earth just like him. _

_Isaac never learned what became of Alex…_

The listener stares at the warm scene before him again, the dark truth fading from his mind like shadows before the hearth fire. He feels his heart melt a little, seeing the children he never got to have, the mother he would never see surrounded by children, the wife he would never love again, painted over in his mind's eye. Despite knowing he is staring into the window of another life, another time, he still cannot help but feel his anger gentled, his hatred and desire for revenge cleansed in the peace. He feels lightened of a heavy burden, as he stares at the children's innocence, and sees the look of love shared between the mother and the father who had entered the room.

Perhaps this is the reason why he stops to listen that night, and he is glad that he did.

Isaac doesn't like living in a dying myth, trying in vain to forget the past while it twists around him into something else entirely. But he is happy that it has helped him heal some of the scars that surround his heart, and bring a little light into the shadows that have clouded his soul for so long.

For the first time since Jenna died, Isaac smiles. A gentle feeling of happiness wells within him as he thinks of her memory, her laughter and her love, and is not saddened by the death that he finally realizes that he could not prevent.

He turns away from the window, walking away, his boots crunching in the newly falling snow. Isaac still has no destination in mind, but that doesn't matter.

He has walked for the past few thousand years, but tonight is different. Tonight, he has warmth in his heart. The snow is not so cold, nor is the sky with the moon so lonely. That feeling of living is all that matters to Isaac, after spending so many years feeling as dead as his dying myth.

As he walks away, another is watching. Far away in the Elysian Fields, Jenna smiles.

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**A/N:** And that's that! Wow, that was real angsty and turned out much different than the first half of this. Alex was basking in his legend of demonic evilness, living happily for the most part, while Isaac was slowly dying inside. It took hearing his legend and seeing happiness to bring a little bit of life back into him. Hm.

Now you know with PROOF there was no IsaacXMia. Okay, a brief one-sided one (she later married Piers or Garet—I'll let you choose), but no Mudshipping. Now you have to retract all your shoes and bricks from the previous half of the two-shot! hahaha

Oh, and the asterick (*) on "borne by incision" was because, as Julius Caesar obviously didn't exist in the realm of Golden Sun, Caesarian sections (more commonly known as "C-sections") wouldn't exist. I was trying to create a term that they might've used. In the flashback, Jenna was dying, Mia tried doing a c-section to save their son, but they both died in the end

How do I write such sad stuff. Even I'm almost crying over here…

Any questions? Thanks for reading this far, and please R&R!


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